Malibu Beach House

My mum is a big fan of ultra modern miniatures so it's no surprise she went for the DHE Malibu Beach House! Check out some room by room photos:













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Who Gives A Crap

I kept seeing ads for a free trial box of this (exc. shipping) and, with a name like that, I just had to give it a go!

What's The Deal?

Launched in July 2012 via crowdfunding, Who Gives A Crap wants to get us all switching to recycled bog roll. Because right now 27,000 trees are wiped out every single day to make loo paper - yet 2.3 billion people worldwide don't even have access to a toilet.

Who Gives A Crap puts their money where their mouth is on this score too. 50% of their profits - aka over £1million so far - go towards building toilets and improving sanitation in the developing world, the lack of which currently kills almost 800 children a day.

For more toilet facts, btw, check out a post I wrote earlier:


But Isn't It Expensive?

I was actually really surprised by what good value for money the products are. The 100% recycled toilet paper - made from office paper and the like - comes in double length rolls and works out at 18.8p per 100 sheets. By comparison Cushelle and Andrex both come in at over 20p per 100 sheets, and most Supermarket 'luxury' packs fall between 16 and 19p.

They also sell bamboo toilet roll (22.5p per 100 sheets) and tissues, and bamboo / sugarcane blend kitchen roll. Having them in hand I can say that they all feel just as nice, if not better, than our usual buys.



The Trial Box

I ummed and aahed a little over taking the plunge as I'd only just bought a multi-buy of Aldi loo roll. The funky packaging was too much for me to resist though, and I justified it by the fact I'd wanted to get a box of tissues for the living room and would have spent £1 on that. For £2 extra I'd be getting three double length loo rolls and a roll of kitchen towel. Definitely a bargain!

Try the trial for yourself, or if you want to order more straight off use this link to get £5 off. :)

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Penwizard Personalised Books Review

Before Christmas lots of bloggers were running competitions for Penwizard vouchers, a children's book company established in 2004 which specializes in personalised books. What sets them apart from their competitors is the ability to personalise the illustrations as well as the text. After checking out their website I was really impressed by this aspect, especially with the Christmas themed Raymond Briggs books.

I made it my mission to win one!

The overlords of comping luck, or whatever else it is determining the roll of the dice, smiled on me fairly quickly - only for me to get to the checkout and realise that the voucher wouldn't cover the book I wanted. (£19.99 for a large softback and £24.99 for a large hardback.) At the time I literally lacked two pennies to rub together so I went for 'Adventures in Birthday Land' instead at £12.49, fully covered by the voucher.

It's a really sweet little story and Marianna was suitably thrilled with it a couple of weeks ago. :)



Still, I kept thinking about The Snowman book - the animated short being one of my favourite things about Christmas - and when I saw another round of competitions I crossed my fingers and entered them all. This time I was lucky enough to win a £20 voucher and I went straight to the site to place my order.

The website is really easy to use, and it didn't take long at all to customise the child character's skin, hair and eye colour, as well as the length of the hair and a printed message at the beginning of the book. Turnaround time and delivery were super quick, and within days I was putting it away for Marianna's Christmas Eve box.



When the day came we told her it was a special gift from McGinty, our Elf on the Shelf, and Marianna was so excited when she realised she was in the story. Even once Christmas was over she wanted to read it again and again, and told anyone would listen how she was the star of her very own book.

All in all I was extremely pleased with both books. The printing and binding is top notch, every bit as professionally done as the originals, and though they are a little on the pricey side it's worth it for the personalisation element. They're a great keepsake kids can still get plenty of use from in the here and now. A+.

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Butternut Box Review

I found a promo code last week for a completely free trial of Butternut Box - perfectly portioned, freshly cooked meals delivered direct to your door. For your dog! At that price I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out.

How It Works

When you sign up to the site you're asked to fill in some details about your canine friend: their breed, age, weight, activity level, and so on, which enables them to work out how much food your dog needs. You can then choose between two plans - 50% of their daily intake if you want to mix it with other food, or 100% if you plan to switch entirely. 

After inputting your dog's special dietary preferences and / or requirements and picking a delivery date, you just have to sit back and wait for your box to arrive.

Delivery!

The meals are sent out frozen in insulated cardboard boxes, usually in large batches meant to cover two weeks or more. This does mean that you need to have a decent sized freezer to be able to store it but, on the flip side, it helps reduce the company's carbon footprint. 

In fact, their ethos and commitment to making everything they do eco-friendly is something I'm really impressed by. The only aspect of the delivery that is non-recyclable is the plastic food pouch itself, and Butternut say they are already close to rolling out a viable eco alternative.

I loved the cute design on the ice pack, and the nice touch of including a patterned bandana to welcome Bracken to the Butternutter club. Of course, the star of the show is the food itself. There are a range of meal flavours, all of excellent quality, and unlike some dog food we've tried it doesn't smell awful!

Bracken is the fussiest dog I've ever known. If Butternut can get her to clear her bowl, it deserves all the praise I can heap on it and more. :)

Marianna's Doll House

How cool is this? My mum made Marianna a doll house to play with when she visits. The frame is cardboard embossed with a brick pattern using a stencil and then painted, and the pillars are kitchen roll tubes covered in marble patterned laminate paper.



Inside there is plenty of space for Marianna's princess figures to dance about, and there are even working lights! They work by twisting the base to activate the battery - a task that can be a little awkward for little hands - so mum glued magnets to the base and the ceiling, meaning Marianna can easily take them out to switch them on and off.



The stairs are my favourite feature - the door leads to a little secret room which you can only see into through a window on the front.



I love these little planters! They're those little plastic packages spare women's razor heads come in, painted and filled with miniature flowers.



I'm so impressed with the house - and my mum's patience to build it!!





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This Week - 13/01/2019

Two weeks into January and everything feels well and truly back to normal now after all the festivities.

Monday I had a policy seminar and a Labour group meeting, then on Tuesday we resumed our weekly library visits and I was psyched to see that Vincent the Vixen was on the display shelf. It was one of the titles I reviewed for Truth and Tails in the early days of the blog, so it's great to see them expanding and getting exposure. After that we went shopping for reduced Christmas cards, etc, and picked up a couple of free bottles of raspberry & apple Robinson's Refresh'd through the Shopmium app. Sometimes the new product try-outs are hit or miss but it was so good - I could have drunk a crate of the stuff!

The tail end of the week is a blur already, and I can't remember what we did altogether. On Friday Marianna and I went to help out at the Eastern Valley Foodbank collection at Morrisons, then we went on to 50p Fridays at Maendy Primary. It's great that these things are out there, but sad that people need them when we live in the sixth richest country in the world. :(



Back at the household level, I've made £25 through Oh My Dosh! this week so Marianna got to have her 'Old McDonald's', and I splashed out almost £2 on some magnetic false eyelashes. I've only ever managed to get proper false eyelashes to stick in place twice in my life, but I'm hoping these are going to arrive and work and be brilliant. Time will tell!

Along with OMD! I've been trying out various free trials and services. I wrote a blog post about MyPostcard.com which lets you send personalised cards for free, and I made a start on Mothers' Day with a free card and delivery code at Planet Cards. I also got 10 free prints + free delivery through the Free Prints app. With the trials I've given Graze Box (snack free with YY3P5KFRE), Toucan Box (kids' crafts for £2), and Butternut Box (dog food, 75% off) a go. I shall doubtless blog about them all in due course.

Today I took Marianna to one of her nursery friends' birthday party - she had a great time, except for when Spiderman, Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy turned up. The fear of mascots in all their many guises is still going strong...

Finally, if you missed them, I've got two competitions running at the moment. One for a copy of the lovely kid's book, Morgan's Magic Moon, and another for a little panda money box.



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My Postcard (.com)

I've been busy scouring the web for cool products this week, and one of my favourites I've come across is the brainchild of MyPostcard.com.

They're an online service which allows you to design and send personalised photo postcards and greeting cards, as well as offering photo prints. So far, so standard. The brilliant thing about them though is that if you sign up with a referral code you get $3.00 free credit.

Sending a postcard costs $1.99 (or $2.99 in an envelope), so that's a freebie straight away. Then if you share your own referral code and somebody signs up with it, you both get $3.00 credit. Anthony and I both signed up and put together some memory cards of 2018. I've got one for my notice board, and have sent another to my mum. :)


If you want to give it a go yourself here are two MyPostcard.com referral codes to choose from: JESSICAGJA6 or ANTHONYSM96.




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